At its core, HBO’s wildly popular fantasy series Game of Thrones is a chess game. The early seasons involved a handful of characters slowly and methodically plotting their political maneuvers and adapting to situations around them in the hopes of securing the coveted Iron Throne for themselves, while others waited in the wings, quietly accruing power and preparing to strike.

But now that the board has been culled down to its most essential pieces, things are going to start happening a hell of a lot more quickly on the show. No more waiting. No more quiet contemplating. It’s time for action, and according to new interviews with the showrunners and cast, that’s exactly what we’re going to get in Game of Thrones season 7.Read More »

If Jake Paltrow and Noah Baumbach’s candid and surprisingly intimate doc De Palma left you even more hungry for another Brian De Palma film, then you should be happy to hear the filmmaker will shoot Domino in the coming months. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) are currently in talks to star in the crime thriller. The project, which Petter Skavland (Kon-Tiki) wrote, will hit the market at the Cannes Film Festival in search for buyers this month.

You know the drill. A man gets out of prison and returns home. His old life is gone, but the wreckage remains. His friends are scattered. His enemies are powerful. There is no hope for escape. But maybe, just maybe, one last job, one last crime, one last ass-covering, will be all he needs to pull himself up and put his act back together. And then it all goes horribly wrong, of course.

Small Crimes, like so many neo-noirs, is all about a small pile of poor decisions rapidly growing into a large pile of poor decisions, until the whole thing topples over into chaos. But this one is especially nasty, particularly bloodthirsty, and completely unwilling to pull its punches. This movie has a mean streak…and it grins as it draws blood.

If Gerard Butler screaming as a power-hungry god along with tons of crazy creatures flying around and destroying things doesn’t get you interested in Alex Proyas‘ action epic, then nothing will. Lionsgate has just debuted a 60-second Super Bowl spot for Gods of Egypt, attempting to get the crowd that loves both football and 300 on board this positively insane looking movie. There’s a good chance it just might work. Watch the Gods of Egypt Super Bowl spot after the jump. Read More »

On paper, Gods of Egypt sounds like a real treat – an old-school adventure movie that uses Egyptian mythology as stepping stone to showcase gnarly monsters and giant battles between immortal gods should be something any self-respecting fan of good things can get behind. But in trailer form, Gods of Egypt looks like a disaster. It also looked like a disaster when the second trailer arrived. And now, the third time is not the charm.

Still, there are noteworthy elements scattered throughout the wreckage of the new preview that are worthy of your time and attention, should you be interested in such things.Read More »

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a good movie, but let’s not pretend that it’s free of sin. Here is a superbly crafted movie full of terrific actors giving wonderful performances, but you can fill a few buckets with the nitpicks you collect while watching it. Some you can brush off. Others stick in you, tear at your skin, and leave a little mark that makes you wonder what everyone was thinking.

Let’s turn our focus to Captain Phasma, the chrome-plated stormtrooper who was placed front and center in so much marketing (and in the toy aisle), only to literally do nothing of consequence in the final film. However, we can all agree on two things: that sure is some cool armor and actress Gwendoline Christie sure wears it well. But where did this suit of armor come from? Who made it? Who gave it to her? It turns out that Captain Phasma’s armor has a totally true origin story that actually happened and isn’t a silly video cooked up for internet laughs. Honest! And you can watch it below.

The marketing campaign for Gods of Egypt got off to a rocky start, to say the least. The first character posters were, to be frank, ugly, and the messy first trailer wasn’t much better. To top it all off, the film has already sparked criticism for its mostly white cast, prompting apologies from both director Alex Proyas and studio Lionsgate.

But it’s far too late to change anything as fundamental as the casting, or the look and feel of the entire movie, so all Gods of Egypt can do is soldier on. The latest Gods of Egypt trailer tones down the crazy a bit, but does that actually make it look better, or just more boring? Find out for yourself after the jump. Read More »

Gods of Egypt just can’t catch a break. The buzz surrounding the film is currently toxic, following the garish posters and a trailer that left people scratching their heads. Then, the film was criticized for its prominently white cast. Considering Gods of Egypt is, you know, based in Egypt, it’s a puzzling, if not completely surprising, choice that all the major leads — Gerard Butler, Nikola Coster-Waldau, and Brenton Thwaites — are white.

After the jump, read what Lionsgate and director Alex Proyas have to say about the Gods of Egypt whitewashing.

Alex Proyas‘ Gods of Egypt made quite an impression with those first-look character posters, but perhaps not exactly the impression it’d hoped to make. Based on those images, the fantasy epic looked awfully gaudy, even Lisa Frank-y, and frankly kind of cheap. But character posters don’t tend to be the best representation of a movie anyway, so the more reasonable among us tried to reserve judgment until a real trailer came out.

Well, that trailer is finally here, and it does not, in fact, look like a Lisa Frank drawing come to life. (For one thing, there aren’t nearly enough unicorns or rainbows.) So what does it look like? Find out for yourself after the jump. Read More »